Books like

Books like Exit Ghost

12 books with a reading profile close to Exit Ghost by Philip Roth. Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

1

Sing, Unburied, Sing

by Jesmyn Ward

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Thirteen-year-old Jojo lives with his grandparents and toddler sister on the Mississippi Gulf Coast while his mother, Leonie, struggles with drug addiction and grief.
2

Life Before Man

by Margaret Atwood

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Set in Toronto during the late 1970s, the narrative centers on a stagnant love triangle between Elizabeth, her husband Nate, and his lover Lesje.
3

Transcendent Kingdom

by Yaa Gyasi

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Gifty is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where she studies reward-seeking behavior in mice to understand the neural pathways of addiction and depression.
4

Fates and Furies

by Lauren Groff

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

The novel documents the twenty-four-year marriage of Lotto and Mathilde Satterwhite, beginning with their impulsive college graduation wedding and following their ascent into the New York elite.
5

Runaway: Stories

by Alice Munro

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Alice Munro's collection has eight stories, many set in rural Ontario.
6

The Friend

by Sigrid Nunez

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, psychology

After her close friend and mentor, a writer, dies by suicide, the narrator, also a writer, inherits his enormous Great Dane, Apollo.
7

Crossroads

by Jonathan Franzen

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

In suburban Chicago on a single day in 1971, the Hildebrandt family faces individual crises of faith and morality.
8

A Little Life

by Hanya Yanagihara

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Hanya Yanagihara’s novel follows four college classmates—Willem, JB, Malcolm, and Jude—as they navigate adulthood in New York City.
9

Breasts and Eggs

by Mieko Kawakami

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Natsu is a struggling writer living in Tokyo who receives a visit from her older sister, Makiko, and her niece, Midoriko.
10

Shuggie Bain

by Douglas Stuart

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, psychology

Set in 1980s Glasgow, the narrative follows young Shuggie Bain as he grows up in public housing schemes shaped by deindustrialization and poverty.
11

All the Lovers in the Night

by Mieko Kawakami

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Fuyuko Irie is a freelance proofreader in her mid-thirties who lives a solitary, ritualistic life in Tokyo.
12

The Door

by Magda Szabó

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

The narrative centers on the evolving relationship between a young Hungarian writer and her aging housekeeper, Emerence.

Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.

Get papr

Your library, beautifully understood.